Note: This is not a scientific poll. The cast of the Four Flags Players' 'Steel Magnolias' prepares for their upcoming performance this weekend at the First Presbyterian Church, 13 S. Fourth St., Niles, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 25, 26 and 27. Directing for her second time, Dana Rudolph said the formula for community theater "still works" and she is excited to present such a recognized and revered play to the Niles community."I have always wanted to direct this," said Rudolph, who is originally from East Texas. "It's like watching my family members."At the First Presbyterian Church, 13 S. Fourth St. in Niles, the stage is set for the epicenter of Chinquapin -Truvy's, where Harling's endearing characters go for advice, good hair and a little gossip. The Four Flags Players production will hold performances on Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. Harling's play, for anyone who doesn't already know, takes place in Northwest Louisiana in the 1980s and follows the bond...
Originally from: http://www.nilesstar.com/articles/2008/07/23/news/ndnews2.txt

Story of the Girl Next Door, by David Kaufman. Virgin, 626 pp., $29.95. Steve Carell doesn't have a copyright on playing the 40-year-old virgin. That's a role Doris Day, at age 40, was still playing on-screen when she made "That Touch of Mink" with Cary Grant in 1962. In that sex farce, Day was the unsullied working-class Cinderella wooed by the suave Grant, whose eyes were always pointed toward the nearest bedroom. Day was having none of it until the fadeout, by which time she had a wedding ring neatly placed on her left hand. Perhaps because of such feathery confections that played up Day's pure-as-Ivory-soap screen persona, she was rarely taken seriously as an actress and, to a lesser extent, as a vocalist. The title is something of a misnomer, since Day already bared her soul and mussed up her goody-two-shoes image in a candid 1975 autobiography, "Doris Day: My Own Story," done with A.E. Hotchner. Kaufman naturally covers much of the same material: The distant father wh...
Originally from: http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/fanfare/ny-bkcov5782834aug03,0,7615890.story